Deadly Weapon

Deadly Weapon is a solid-state pinball machine released by Premier Technology / Gottlieb in September 1990. Featuring a Lethal Weapon-inspired police and crime-fighting theme, the table is notable as a "Street Level" game. This was an experimental, short-lived series by Gottlieb designed to counter rising manufacturing costs by delivering a simpler, single-level, and slightly more compact machine. Because the concept did not achieve major commercial success, only six models were ever made, resulting in a very limited production run of just 803 units for this specific machine.

The table layout was co-designed by John Trudeau and Jon Norris. The single-level playfield completely lacks traditional ramps and habitrails, but despite its structural simplicity, the playfield is tightly packed with features, including three flippers, four pop bumpers, spinning targets, a three-bank drop target, and multiple kick-out holes. Interestingly, the machine does not have a traditional right outlane, which shifts the draining danger entirely to the left side and the center gap between the main flippers.

The ruleset, relies on a sequential, objective system built around a cop action-movie aesthetic. Players advance through "Crime Scenes" and emergency callouts—such as domestic disturbances and hostage situations—by hitting specific lit targets to raise their police rank. A core objective involves lighting up sequential cop cars to unlock a fast-paced three-ball multiball mode. Upon entering multiball, players are faced with a strategic choice via the cabinet flippers to play for either "Arrests" or "Points," with competitive tournament players favoring the massive millions-point scaling advantages offered by the points track.